BRUCE GARRIOCH, QMI Agency

But there was no sympathy from the St. Louis Blues goaltender as he returned to Ottawa, where he had his share of bad nights, and beat his former team 3-1 Tuesday night at Scotiabank Place.

Senators goalie Craig Anderson was replaced by Alex Auld after two goals on four shots 3:49 into the game. But Elliott made 28 stops in his first game in Ottawa since being dealt a year ago.

“I don’t think we were ready to play,” said Senators coach Paul MacLean. “You have to be ready at the start. We made one execution error on the first goal and the second one they just skated right through us.”

Only captain Daniel Alfredsson was able to beat Elliott as the Senators’ spiral reached seven straight losses. The Senators haven’t won a game at home since they knocked off the Flyers on Jan. 8.

MacLean hoped to change momentum when he yanked Anderson.

“I didn’t like the way the first two goals went in. I just felt if we changed the goalie, it would change everybody’s attitude. It wasn’t a reflection on Craig, it was more of a reflect on the team,” said MacLean.

It was the first time the Blues had won in Ottawa since Jan. 26, 2000 — ending an 0-5 drought.

“I haven’t played in a little bit so just getting back out there and trying to do my best for the guys, give us a chance to win, that’s what it really meant,” said Elliott. “I mean, you really want to get back in that winning feeling. Doing it here is pretty big for me.”

The Blues had only 18 shots on the Auld/Anderson combo. David Perron scored twice, while Chris Porter had one.

Presented with the Molson Cup for January, Anderson had better rediscover that form. He was making his 18th straight start after MacLean wanted to “sleep” on the decision. Many more nights like this and MacLean will be sleepless. Florida is two points behind the eighth-ranked Senators with four games in hand.

“It’s a frustrating game,” said Jason Spezza. “We’re not as strong on pucks as we were when we were winning, we’re not burying chances and we’re not as sharp as we were. That’s why we’re losing games.”

The Senators were down 2-0 before people had a chance to even get their seats warm. While the Senators had talked in the morning about getting off to a quick start, the message looked lost by the time they stepped on the ice.

The Senators host Mike Fisher and the Nashville Predators in Chris Phillips’ 1,000th game Thursday.